Crimean woman sentenced to 22 years for an invented ‘terrorist attack on a Russian military officer

Russia’s notorious Southern District Military Court has sentenced Nadiya Hrekova from occupied Sevastopol to 22 years on ‘terrorism’ charges related to an explosion that may not have been deliberate and most probably had nothing to do with her.  The 39-year-old photographer, who has two sons, appears to have been targeted as the owner of the apartment in which the explosion took place, although it was let at the time.

It was reported on 6 February 2024 that an explosion had taken place, with preliminary information suggesting that this had been caused by a gas cylinder.  Nobody had been in the apartment at the time, but the explosion had led to the collapse of part of the slab between the first ground) and second floor.  The lower floor housed a now-closed restaurant.

It was only in April 2025 that a report appeared in the local occupation media saying that this had been a ‘terrorist attack’.  Shortly afterwards, Russia’s FSB publicly claimed that explosives had been planted in apartment No. 13, which was rented by an officer of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.  The owner of the apartment was only then named as the ‘suspect’ although, according to a friend who spoke with Suspilne Crimea, Hrekova had, in fact, been arrested back on 6 February 2024.  Such speed by Russia’s enforcement bodies is typically linked more with the their wish to prove that they have done something, while expending minimum effort, than with the likelihood of a smoking gun pointing to Hrekova. Since the Black Sea fleet officer and is wife were renting the property from her, it is not clear when she was supposed to have planted the explosive. 

The friend, whose real name cannot be named for her safety, explains that Nadiya was seized while travelling with her children, at the Mineralny Vody airport in Stavropol district (Russia).  A month passed with no information whatsoever as to Hrekova’s whereabouts, and then a video appeared on Russian Telegram channels.  On it, Hrekova, her face blurred, was heard ‘confessing’ to having committed ‘grave crimes’.

“I recognized her voice and way of talking. That was Nadiya, however that confession looked as though she was speaking under duress”, the friend explains.  There is every reason to assume that this was the case, with the FSB probably using torture, threats or other forms of duress while holding Hrekova incommunicado, without any charges having been laid, and without an independent lawyer.  The ‘videoed confessions’ extracted in such a way have been a standard part of Russia’s prosecutions of Ukrainian political prisoners since 2014.  In several cases, the ‘confessions’ have been to supposed ‘crimes’ that do not, later, even figure in the indictment, with no attempt made to explain in court why the person admitted to ‘crimes’ for which they were then not prosecuted.

Hrekova was later charged with an attempt to kill the Russian officer who was purportedly living in an apartment, rented from her.  She was accused of ‘treason’ (Article 275 of Russia’s criminal code); of ‘an act of terrorism’ (Article 205 § 3b); of undergoing training in terrorist activities (Article 205.3); and explosives charges (Article 222.1 § 4).   

The prosecution claimed that Hrekova had, in July 2023, contacted Ukraine’s Security Service [SBU] and had received information on a hiding place with an explosive device and instructions on how to install and activate it.  They asserted that she had placed this supposed explosive device in her apartment which the Black Sea fleet officer and his wife were renting from her.

It is more than likely that the only ‘evidence’ to back this implausible plot came from a ‘confession’ which Nadiya Hrekova made while held incommunicado without access to a proper lawyer.  It is possible that she never had independent legal counsel as the number of ‘hearings’, and the fact that scheduled hearings were repeatedly postponed. The ‘case’ was passed to the Southern District Military Court on 24 January 2025 and heard by ‘judge’ Sergei Viacheslavovich Obraztsov who has already passed other illegal sentences against Ukrainian prisoners of war / political prisoners.  

If, as is often the case, a Russian-appointed ‘lawyer’ confined his or her role to persuading Hrekova to ‘admit the charges’ in court as well, on the grounds that she would get a lower sentence, she was deceived.  The sentence passed by Obraztsov on 30 July 2025, of 22 years’ imprisonment in a medium-security prison colony was of almost unprecedent ferocity.